.223, 6mm, and 6.5 failures on big game

[fj40rob]

I don't have a picture, but I might be able to dig through a freezer to find the scapula...this is a story of an unknown but too small bullet for a long range shot with Barnes ttsx. We harvested a bear last spring (2024) that had a slight limp. When I deboned the scapula, I was surprised to see a weird scar/heal mark on the scapula and a blue tip in the joint just below. The bullet damaged but clearly didn't penetrate the scapula. We never found that bullet. ADFG had a report of a hunter wounded bear in 2023 to a similar size/color bear that was not recovered (too far of a shot). I wish I knew how far the 2023 shot was and the caliber, but something happened to that bullet.

 

[Harvey_NW]

I’m not in the small caliber camp, but I gotta say I am scratching my head how that situation could have physically occurred. There was a mass of a bullet left (vs it somehow truly blowing up) that somehow was stopped in a very short distance against tissue and thin bone, I don’t understand what the mechanism of failure could have been. A explosive bullet at full speed would destroy more tissue and have less retained mass right? Would a squib load going slow have deformed that much?

I don't understand it either, that's exactly why I asked the question. I've listened to Form/S2H/Backcoutnry etc. podcasts, I understand how they work in tissue and that what seems to have happened.. can't. But it did. So my question was how? First thing I asked him was "is there ANY possible way the bullet hit something in flight, branch, weed, anything", he said "absolutely zero, he was in the middle of a mainline, maybe a bird or a bumblebee?". I don't have any experience with low impact velocity testing, so I don't know if that's what a squib load would look like. But squib load or suicide grouse are the only plausible possibilities I can fathom.

@Harvey_NW I think I have the mystery figured out! This buck had been shot before but that bullet was stopped by the impenetrable shoulder of a blacktail deer. Your friend just happened to make the perfect shot, which hit that bullet and tear open a nasty wound while ricocheting off into the woods where it got stuck in an old growth log. That bullet will be found by the next generation of loggers and be the story for the ages of the bullet that stopped the resaw line.

Case closed!

Jay

I'll be a son of a.. Solid work detective!!

 

[Swamp Fox]

Muzzleloaders SUCK but I still love a muzzy hunt every year.

Never have lost a ML deer. .50 cal ... mostly from my TC Renegade ... Old skool ... Short shots, open sights ...

Like anything else, don't stretch something 'til it won't work.